Corporate car and truck fleet managers in Europe could cut their petrol and diesel costs by around 14% – and save around 53 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in emissions – if they switched to low-carbon vehicles and took other steps to reduce fuel use.

The analysis by think-tank CE Delft found fuel consumption represents 32% of the cost of fleet ownership in the bloc with the majority of fleet emissions coming from lorries and trucks.

Fleet managers could save around 28 billion euros on fuel compared to 2012’s bill of around 200 billion euros for an estimated 123 billion litres of fuel, the research suggested.

Corporate fleets in Europe – which include large supermarkets such as Tesco – currently emit around 380 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is just over Spain’s annual emissions.

Corporate fleet managers are responsible for buying 50% of new cars in Europe – that figure rising to 54% in the UK.

Road transport emissions make up a significant chunk of the EU’s total emissions – 72 – 81% of emissions from transport as a whole, which makes up 20% of CO2 emissions.

“Company cars are often sold on to private buyers after a few years and remain on the road for many more, so the influence of the corporate fleet on emissions is greater than these figures suggest,” the report states.

Fuel efficiency measures

The report argues that fuel savings – as well as CO2 and health savings – could be created if fleet managers take a range of actions including: